Flu Shot Prevents Millions of Illnesses, Study Says

By Annie Hauser

Published Jun 20 2013 02:07 PM EDT

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June isn't part of the official flu season, but the summer weather doesn't mean you can push illness prevention to the back burner until October. Hundreds of people still contract influenza each week, all summer long, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers calculated the healthcare burden of flu cases that would have occurred without vaccinations based on factors such as illness and hospitalization rates, vaccination coverage and vaccine effectiveness. The flu shot made the greatest difference in the most recent year studied -- 2010 to 2011 -- when 5 million infections, 2.1 million medical visits and more than 40,000 hospitalizations were prevented, researchers said in the study.

During the 2012 to 2013 flu season, which was most severe from mid-December through the end of March, 182 out of every 100,000 people contracted the virus with people over age 65 hit the hardest, according to an end-of-the-season report from the CDC. During the season, medical professionals doled out an estimated 134.9 million doses of the flu shot.

The U.S. is the only country with a universal recommendation in favor of the flu shot. The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends flu shots for anyone over the age of six months. Yearly flu vaccination should begin in September, or as soon as vaccine is available, and continue throughout the flu season which can last as late as May, according to CDC experts. However, it's never too late in the season to get the annual shot for some protection, experts say.